The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a Klondike beard, an affinity for magic and the afternoon poker news feature table eating out of your hand.
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Today in the 3-Bet we find a couple of ESPN villains loved by the cameras, Viktor Blom reminds us he can play and poker's premier rap artist back in the game.
1) Will, Alex Make it Awkward
Last week we finally got to see the ESPN footage from the 2016 WSOP Main Event for the first time and, as always, it delivered the goods.
Among many first-day (aka Day 4) highlights, UK solicitor and "speech play" advocate William Kassouf - aka WSOP Villain #1 - made his on-screen debut to both rave reviews and hisses & boos.
This week the intensity turned up another notch as the field got smaller, Kassouf's famed taunting penalty hit the air and the WSOP found an equally polarizing counterpart to Kassouf - Austin's Alex Keating - to play villain #2.
To rip a page from NYC's finest club reviewer Stefon, this double episode of WSOP goodness had everything.
Sets-over-sets, awkward clock calls, close-up magic, brutal rivers, magic Dragons, embarrassing mis-clicks and a delightful does of Sweden's Per Linde.
For serious. We love Per Linde. Watch it all below (quickly, before it disappears!):
2) Viktor Blom Can Still Make a Run
If you saw the headline "Isildur1 Spin-Up" five years ago you'd immediately click on it and expect to read a tale of an epic 72-hour session at $500/$1,000 where he ran 200k up to $4m, lost $6m and then ran it back to a $1.5m profit.
Or similar, anyway.
These days, things are a little different for the hands-down Top 5 online poker player of all-time.
His swings have mostly been in the downward direction, although in much more modest proportions to his heyday as he's only down around 3/4 of a million for the year.
Make no mistake, though, Blom is still a threat to run up a roll or bink a tournament at any time. He proved it again last night with a 3rd-place finish (and $72k) payday in WCOOP Event #55, $530 NL Hold'em.
It might not be a glory score of yore but it was certainly enough to remind poker fans he's still got game. Also, showing old habits die hard, it was enough to get him right back into the $400/$800 8-Game games this morning.
Read the full write up of his nice WCOOP run right here.
3) Pragress & Aida Have Hazy Eyez
We can't watch the WSOP Main Event on ESPN without "Poker is Fun, For Everyone" bouncing around in our heads so it's fitting as the ME begins its march to the Nov. 9 poker rap's progenitor has a new record out to accompany it.
Well, not exactly "accompany" it per se. It's (sadly) not about poker.
But you can tell Prahlad Freidman - aka Spirit Rock, one of the preeminent online poker players in history - clearly takes his craft (and his weed) quite seriously:
The new album is called Rider and you can buy it (and individual tracks) on iTunes here.
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